Microsoft or linux NVR

[kagz100 0]

Hi

Im trying to select the appropriate nvr for my video surveillance solution . what are the pros and cons of using windows or linux nvr say from qnap or synology nas (installed with nvr linux software )

[dmoore 0]

Hi

Im trying to select the appropriate nvr for my video surveillance solution . what are the pros and cons of using windows or linux nvr say from qnap or synology nas (installed with nvr linux software )

 

That seems kind of backwards. What if the Linux software doesn't do what you do but the windows software does? I'd suggest that your specific security needs drive your choice of software and if you do get down to a windows vs linux, make that decision at that time, not at the start of the selection process.

[buellwinkle 0]

Yes, tough call as my first priority is finding the right software and worry about the OS afterwards. Heck, I run OSX Lion on my Mac, and run Linux and Windows in VMWare Fusion so I can run all the software I want to run. I run Hadoop and database software on Linux, IE on Windows (for some cameras that require IE) and MS Office on OS X, all on a 1kg Macbook Air 11.

 

But say you find software that runs on both, equally, then Linux is free, that's a plus, it's designed to be a server platform vs. Windows is more of a desktop platform pretending to be a server and you need to pay for it. I find both equally easy/hard to configure properly. Yes Windows gives the illusion of being easier because of it's native gui vs. gnome desktop on Linux, but setting up some things is harder than Linux. Of course if you only use Windows, anything different will seem hard and vice versa. In general, my experience, as a server on the same identical hardware with an i/o intensive app, Linux tends to be about 30-40% faster. With that said, I've run websites on Windows IIS using ASP that were twice as fast as running Apache HTTP & Tomcat server using JSP on the same hardware so the OS is not always the determining factor. I developed a web for an oil company that got bought out and the new company made me re-write the same app for Linux. I laughed so hard when I had to show them that it was twice as slow as Windows IIS. A telecom had me take an application and port it to Linux for the front end and Windows for the database, Oracle, that too was a disaster, worst of both worlds. Oracle was a pig on Windows. They asked why it was so slow, I said it's because you picked the infrastructure, I just write code, haha.

 

As for reliability, in the old days, when Windows had memory leaks and had to be rebooted at least once a week, I would have said no to Windows, but it's actually very reliable these days. My NVR software is Windows based, performs very well. What was really unexpected for me is I have a Tivo Premier, their latest box and uses Linux internally and it's not that stable, sometimes I have to reboot it once every month or every other month as it freezes. I tried two different Tivos, same issue. I also have DirecTV DVRs, for some reason, it freezes once in a while, has to be unplugged to reset it, it runs Linux. In the same house as the Tivo, plugged into the same cable TV, I have a cheap ZBox nettop, atom processor, running Win 7 with Media Center to do the same thing that Tivo and DirecTV DVR does. In one year it's been in use, I've never had to reboot it and it performs significantly faster than the Tivo.

[dmoore 0]

In general, my experience, as a server on the same identical hardware with an i/o intensive app, Linux tends to be about 30-40% faster. With that said, I've run websites on Windows IIS using ASP that were twice as fast as running Apache HTTP & Tomcat server using JSP on the same hardware so the OS is not always the determining factor. I developed a web for an oil company that got bought out and the new company made me re-write the same app for Linux.

 

As for reliability, in the old days, when Windows had memory leaks and had to be rebooted at least once a week, I would have said no to Windows, but it's actually very reliable these days. My NVR software is Windows based, performs very well. What was really unexpected for me is I have a Tivo Premier, their latest box and uses Linux internally and it's not that stable, sometimes I have to reboot it once every month or every other month as it freezes. I tried two different Tivos, same issue. I also have DirecTV DVRs, for some reason, it freezes once in a while, has to be unplugged to reset it, it runs Linux. In the same house as the Tivo, plugged into the same cable TV, I have a cheap ZBox nettop, atom processor, running Win 7 with Media Center to do the same thing that Tivo and DirecTV DVR does. In one year it's been in use, I've never had to reboot it and it performs significantly faster than the Tivo.

 

I've got quite a bit o history with MS products, having an entire career built on them and what I've learned is that it's rarely the OS that isn't stable or fast, it's the applications and things user/admins do to the base OS that cause it issues. Memory leaks? Every one of those I've tracked down over the last few years was the result of 3rd party hardware, not MS OS software.

 

I've also had a Tivo since 1999 and I'd agree that they have become less reliable but that really, I believe, has less to do with the Linux kernel than it does with the code that Tivo writes today.

 

I could see a case that could be made for selecting the OS first but as you mention, I think it's almost a mute issue today - if you want to run a Mac on a PC - no problem, run Linux in a VM on your Mac or PC - no problem. Want to run all of them together - great, install free VMware (which I run my DigiFort NVR solution on). In "general" I think it really doesn't matter since what will really matter is - does the application do what I want it to do?

[yakky 0]

I think its a tossup these days. I agree with the above, that a well built windows box will run for quite a while, especially compared to a linux box. Older Sun or HPUX stuff was silly stable, I've had servers running for 3-4 years without reboots.

 

There are so many security updates for linux distributions that its worse now than windows. The kernel ones sometimes don't play nice with whatever software you have and it turns into a big mess.

 

Pick the app, then the OS.